WBS offers low-cost broadband

Wireless Business Solutions (WBS) has unveiled i-Go lite, a wireless broadband package that offers 210MB of data for R195 per month.

According to CEO Thami Mtshali, the i-Go lite package will help the company fulfil its mandate of making quality mobile broadband accessible in SA`s underserviced areas.

"It boggles the mind that the 3 million people who live in Soweto still have no access to fixed-line broadband 11 years into the democracy that was supposed to give everyone a voice," he says.

Mtshali observes that SA needs a massive uptake of broadband by individual users to put the country firmly on the road to 6% gross domestic product growth.

"Our economy is suffering because we have a paltry 120 000 broadband users out of a population of 45 million people," he says.

Tebogo Khaas, chairman of the SMME Forum, has called for broadband products that address the needs of township-based businesses. He notes that the forum has 1 500 members and that less than 8% of its membership had broadband access last year.

Ray Webber, spokesman for the Communication Users Association of SA, says while the organisation does not endorse any specific suppliers or products, it welcomes the introduction of another low-end broadband product to the market.

"This is further proof that there is some competition in the broadband space," he says.

Rudolph Muller, founder of MyADSL, says it is encouraging to see that WBS is trying to compete head-on with both Sentech and the mobile operators in the wireless broadband arena. However, he cautions that WBS`s claim of i-Go lite being the "most affordable broadband" is not accurate.

He notes that Vodacom has two 3G packages that provide users with 150MB of data at R149 and 250MB at R200. An even better offer is MTN`s offering of 350MB at R200, he says.

Muller notes that WBS`s offering works out to 93c per MB of data, while Vodacom`s similar offering costs users 80c per MB. MTN`s offering in this price range will cost 63c, far less than both Vodacom and WBS`s offerings, he says.

Webber also cautions that users should consider their total monthly upload and download requirements and the total costs associated with all the offerings before deciding which product to choose.

Muller agrees: "Users should be warned that their allocated data for this new offering will be depleted under 30 minutes if the service is performing at its maximum speed of 1Mbps."

WBS says i-Go lite customers who exceed their monthly quota of 210MB of data can purchase additional capacity at R139 for 500MB or R229 for 1GB. WBS levies a R114 activation charge on all new month-to-month subscriptions.

Related stories:
WBS calls for tax-deductible broadband
SMEs slam broadband providers